Tuesday, 22 May 2012

Welcome to my next instalment of Trends on Tuesday, I thought I would have a go at something that has been building in popularity across the scrapping world....using up your negatives, all those off cuts from your die cuts or punches and making them a big part of your page. Here are a few links to get your creative juices flowing from the October Afternoon blog (you have to scroll down to find the pages as there are a few pages in each post, but I have put the page titles alongside the link to make them easier to find)

Alongside using up the offcuts of punches and die cuts you can also hand cut too. Here is a page I created where I pencilled outlined the words and then cut it with a craft knife, so there are loads of ways of creating this effect.

Onto the example that I have for you today; my page uses some of Crate Papers Random and Farmhouse collections. I love the denim which works well on a boy page. For the stars I just ran my piece of yellow paper through my die cut machine several times, and I used the positive stars to make a little banner underneath the photo. I started the page by scrapping gesso across the background and then layered up and stitched my papers. I stuck the negative stars down using some silicone glue so that it raised the piece off the page a little which gives a nice shadow too.

I hope it inspires you to have a go at using up some of the pieces of paper that you might throw away normally and turn the negatives into positives on your page :)

Sunday, 20 May 2012

I have been busy today enjoying a bit of playing with paper. I have made a layout and some cards with the new Simple Stories Summer Fresh products but unfortunately I can't share as they are for the UKScrappers Simple Recipes series - you don't have long to wait as it is Junes recipe :)

Instead I wanted to share a layout which has been in progress for AGES! It also uses Simple Stories but this time the delightful Yearography papers which as you may have gathered from previous blog posts I absolutely fell in love with!

The paper I used was perfect to make an overview page for our 2010 cruise. Infact I made the background of the page many months ago at an Eclectic Keepsakes crop but only just got around to finishing it by adding the little photos.

This paper would also work well for a month in review, holiday or other event which stretches over a couple of weeks or more.

I love how easy the page design was and how the most difficult part was organising and printing my photos, once that was done it came together so easily.

Sorry to hear about the hacking... can't think what people get from doing this. Glad the shop is okay and that you manage to sort out any problems.
Thank you for the chance of winning these lovely papers.

Saturday, 12 May 2012

Coming next month on the weekend of June 22nd - 24th we are bring you our second cybercrop! You can look forward to another weekend of fun, challenges, classes, inspiration and more from all of us on the design team. Scrapbook pages, mini books, a card or two and some topical challenges as well. We will be releasing a timetable nearer the time as well as sneak peaks of the projects and what materials you might want to gather to join in. As for last year we will be doing a limited number of kits for some of the classes so keep your eyes peeled here and on the main site for details of those!

As always all classes will come will full instructions to enable you to create along when they are released throughout the weekend, or simply download them, save them, and play along in your own time. We will have a gallery on each blog post so you can share your projects based on the classes and of course a sprinkling of prizes along the way.

Thursday, 10 May 2012

It's been a while since we had one of these and new in this week is the new Simple Stories line Summer Fresh. To win one of the new 6 x 6 paper pads, just leave a comment by Monday 14th May at 6pm.

A bit of sad news is that our shop gallery has been hacked and we lost seven years of DT galleries which means that quite a few of the links on here now don't work :(.
Fortunately the shop was unaffected otherwise we would have faced the prospect of uploading thousands of products all over again.

Tuesday, 8 May 2012

Hello everyone, I'm really excited to start off a series of posts having a look at different scrapbook trends. They are going to be fortnightly on a Tuesday and look at some of the different trends in scrapbooking - from paints, mists, triangles, chevrons, hexagons.... - if you have any particular favourites you've noticed then leave me a comment, likewise if it inspires you to scrap a page or make a card then leave me a link as I would love to come and see what you have been creating.

They work really well when you leave a bit of white space on your page. I like to put them on a diagonal line across my page so that it draws your eye in and across the photo, rather than opposite ends of the paper. Generally I put the top tab on the top to the left and the bottom one to the right, as this is the way we read in the west and so the way we tend to look at pages, however it can work the other way too. They are a great piece of extra interest and a super way to use up scraps of papers that you have left over. Just punch, cut, staple/stick and layer up lots of little pieces of paper/stickers/bling/buttons and you have your own ready made embellishment.

Monday, 7 May 2012

This month Jill and Mel said we could choose exactly what we wanted for our design team kit. Well, I think I surprised Jill by choosing an older range rather than one of the newest ones. I absolutely loved the bright summer colours of the Bella BLVD papers and the so shouted my name.

So altogether I choose 8 papers and with just a little extra card have made:-

1 mini-book - celebrating my daughter's fancy dress birthday party

5 layouts

and 3 cards

Keep an eye out for the May DT Gallery to see all the projects that the DT have created.

Well, does a paper range have to be the latest for you to love it or do you just love it because it is beautiful regardless of whether it is this seasons latest or not.

Sunday, 6 May 2012

The scrap lift challenge is always fun! Here is Heather holding Jane Hewitts street jazz layout on the right and her own beautiful scrap lift featuring her talented daughter Georgie on the left.

Jane won the scrapping bingo challenge this time. This challenge is a big hit with the delegates as it offers such a wide range of options that everyone can easily have a go if they want to - it can also kick start a sluggish mojo with the lines on the bingo grid listing the elements to include.

Alison substituted the large circle on the sketch challenge for an equally large pumpkin and took the prize on that challenge!

Claire was joining us for the first time and her NYC page was the winner of the mystery kit challenge.

Carol managed to win both the card challenge and the Olympic challenge, as the challenge entries are anonymous it occasionally happens that the same person wins twice.